The Rossi Methodology
by ilovetvalot
Summary: Post ep for 6x01...Dave tries to reach JJ after the events of the season premiere. Based on the TV Prompt Challenge: One Tree Hill - "My Attendence is Bad, but My Intentions Are Good." TWO SHOT.
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note: Hello, readers! A couple of notes for you today.**_

_**First, please remember to stop by our forum, "Chit Chat on Author's Corner" and grab a nomination ballot for the first EVER Profiler's Choice Awards! You have SEVEN days remaining to nominate your picks and we'd love to hear from each one of you. Come, help us make sure that your favorite stories and authors get the recognition that they deserve.**_

_**So, c'mon, guys, let's all get motivated and choose some of this site's most deserving authors and stories to share with our friends! We're heading into our last week of nominations and while we've had a great response so far, we'd love to hear from EACH of you. Let your opinion be heard!**_

_**Also at the forum, signups for our first ever ff. net based "Criminal Minds Christmas Gift Fic Exchange" are underway! All you need to do is reply to the thread at the forum or send us a PM telling us 1) Which pairings you would feel comfortable writing, 2) the central pairing you'd like to be featured in the story you receive as a Christmas gift, and 3) Name a Christmas carol plus three Christmas-y prompts you'd like to see in the story you receive as a Christmas gift (you'll only have to use three of the four items in the actual fic). Assignments will be given on November 1st and you'll have until DECEMBER 25, 2010 to post your gift. Further details are available at the forum. Please, let's make this a Merry Christmas for ALL!**_

_**And, please join us at the forum as we get to know another fellow talented author, Faith4000 in our "Getting To Know" series of interviews.**_

* * *

**The Rossi Methodology**

_**One Tree Hill - My Attendance Is Bad, But My Intentions Are Good**_

Splashing her pale face with cold water, Jennifer Jareau stared at her reflection in the mirror above the sink. Her thoughts ran rampant, every one deeper and worse than the former.

_I hate them. Each one of them. To leave me floundering like that. _

Reid, she could excuse, he was a follower and the idea of him trying to talk anyone down via the radio was almost laughable. Morgan had been too emotionally involved; that was true. Prentiss had been at the hospital with the victim.

But Hotch? And Rossi?

Nope, there were no excuse for their so-called decisions. No excuses whatsoever. She was both judge and jury, and she had already found them negligent and in dereliction of duty. And the consequences would be dire.

Pitching her used paper towel into the trash can, she took a deep breath. The sooner she pulled herself together then the sooner she could get on her home bound plane. And the sooner she could retrieve her own sweet smelling baby from her nanny and bury her nose in that downy hair, wiping out all other unwanted memories. Then, perhaps, she'd be able to breathe again.

Maybe.

Striding out of the small airline restroom, she ignored the two men waiting outside the door completely, focusing her gaze straight ahead.

Damn them both! If they hadn't helped her when she needed it, she sure as hell didn't need them now. The only person she needed was hundreds of miles away. And he was waiting for her.

**/~/~/**

"I don't ever think I've seen her that angry before," Hotch murmured, watching JJ walk with a stiffened spine toward their terminal, her body language speaking volumes.

"Gee, I can't think why," Dave muttered sarcastically, his voice clipped. "Couldn't have anything to do with the fact that her boss shoved her into a position even the most seasoned hostage negotiator would have cringed at, could it? I only say that because I am that seasoned negotiator and my stomach still hasn't finished doing cartwheels."

"Dave," Hotch sighed, his patience pushing toward its rarely-found limits, "You know we had no time. And she got the job done."

"By the grace of God," Rossi snapped, his tone darkening with each words. Pursing his lips, Rossi shook his head. "Aaron, have you stopped to think about what it would have done to JJ if he'd killed that kid? I mean, you think she's pissed now? Imagine how much worse this could have been for a second."

"I'm aware, Dave," Hotch muttered, crossing his arms over his chest as he turned to face his old friend. "But I made the best decisions I could for everyone concerned at the time. That's what I do."

"I know that," Dave nodded, watching as his one-time protégée squared his shoulders. "And I can't stand here and deny that I might not have made the same choices. But, you also can't expect her to just get over this in a couple of hours. She got knocked for a hell of a loop today."

"Sometimes as an agent, you have to learn on the fly," Hotch stated evenly. "We've each had to do it."

"But how many of us have had to do it when a little girl's life hung in the balance? With every word we were saying broadcast to the world?" Rossi questioned, refusing to accept seemingly pat answers for a situation that was anything but par for the course. "When any one of those words could have cost that kid her life?"

Frowning, Aaron nodded resolutely as they walked toward the plane. "I'll talk to her."

"Unless you want a one way trip out of the jet, sans parachute, why don't you let me run interference on this one?" Dave suggested, his black eyes meeting Aaron's meaningfully as they climbed the metal steps leading up to the plane.

And as Hotch met JJ's cold gaze at the back of the jet, he nodded. "That actually might not be a bad idea," he murmured under his breath, aware that Rossi's prediction might very well become a reality if the calculating gleam in JJ's eyes was anything to go by. He had seen that woman angry before…and this time was far, far worse.

"I thought you'd see it my way," Dave murmured, brushing past Hotch as he made his way to the seat beside JJ.

**/~/~/**

Silently cursing as she violently shoved her black go bag in the overhead compartment, Jennifer Jareau slammed the lid down on the small space with a vicious flick of her wrist and threw herself into her seat. Snapping her seatbelt into place with a jerky hand, she glanced up as she heard a familiar deep baritone.

"Hey, Jayje," Derek Morgan murmured, shuffling in the aisle in front of her seat, his dark head bent, "I just wanted to apologize for blowing you off at the crime scene this afternoon. I was out..."

Holding up a hand as Derek spoke, JJ's jaw flexed. "Derek," she bit out softly, her teeth clenched. "Don't. Not right now."

"But..."

"Please don't ask me to repeat myself," she said, her voice lethally soft as she fought to control every word. "I'm just not ready to talk about it."

Knowing when to fold, Morgan nodded. "Okay," he replied quietly, taking a step to the side. "But for what it's worth, I am sorry," he said regretfully before continuing up the aisle to take a seat beside Reid.

Sorry. He was sorry. Well, bully for him, JJ thought bitterly, tersely nodding to Emily as she walked past. Didn't these people realize all the 'I'm sorries' in the world wouldn't have meant anything if that little girl had died on her watch today? Didn't they realize that she was the one responsible today?

Glancing up sharply as David Rossi settled into the seat beside her, JJ's hand tightened on the arms of her seat. Christ! Anybody but him, she thought as the engines roared to life underneath their feet. Hadn't she dealt with enough today without adding the arrogant senior profiler into her equation?

Waiting until the sound died down, JJ offered Dave a sidelong glance. "If you're here to apologize, too, then..."

Snorting, Dave smiled without humor, rolling his eyes. "Have I ever been the type of guy to offer apology? Besides," he said, turning his head to look at her with assessing eyes, "I don't have anything to say I'm sorry for."

* * *

_**Author's Note 2 - Also guys, please don't forget that if you'd like to advertise the awards on your own profile pages or stories, there's a short blurb on my (ilovetvalot) and Tonnie's (tonnie2001969) profile page for you to copy and paste if you choose! **_

_**Again, thanks to everyone reading, reviewing, alerting and favoriting this story!**_


	2. Chapter 2

_**Author's Note: Hello, readers! A couple of notes for you today.**_

_**First, please remember to stop by our forum, "Chit Chat on Author's Corner" and grab a nomination ballot for the first EVER Profiler's Choice Awards! You have SIX days remaining to nominate your picks and we'd love to hear from each one of you. Come, help us make sure that your favorite stories and authors get the recognition that they deserve.**_

_**So, c'mon, guys, let's all get motivated and choose some of this site's most deserving authors and stories to share with our friends! We're heading into our last week of nominations and while we've had a great response so far, we'd love to hear from EACH of you. Let your opinion be heard!**_

_**Also at the forum, signups for our first ever ff. net based "Criminal Minds Christmas Gift Fic Exchange" are underway! All you need to do is reply to the thread at the forum or send us a PM telling us 1) Which pairings you would feel comfortable writing, 2) the central pairing you'd like to be featured in the story you receive as a Christmas gift, and 3) Name a Christmas carol plus three Christmas-y prompts you'd like to see in the story you receive as a Christmas gift (you'll only have to use three of the four items in the actual fic). Assignments will be given on November 1st and you'll have until DECEMBER 25, 2010 to post your gift. Further details are available at the forum. Please, let's make this a Merry Christmas for ALL!**_

_**And, please join us at the forum as we get to know another fellow talented author, Faith4000 in our "Getting To Know" series of interviews and a rousing new discussion thread entitled, "What Do We, the Authors, Owe Our Readers".**_

* * *

**The Rossi Methodology**

**Chapter Two**

Eyes widening as she jerked up straight in the chair, JJ sputtered, "Pardon me?"

"I said, I don't have anything to be sorry for," Dave shrugged, stretching out his legs as he settled deeper into the leather seat. "I did my job, same as you."

"You did your job," JJ echoed incredulously, her hands beginning to tremble violently as she clutched at the armrests. "No!" she hissed angrily, "I believe I did your job today! Against my better judgment, I might add!"

"You got the job done, JJ," Dave said simply, arching a brow.

"It wasn't my job to do, Rossi!" JJ snapped, thumping her fist against the armrest. "My hands won't stop shaking, damn it! I could have gotten that child killed!"

"But you didn't," he offered simply, leaning his head back against the headrest. "You got the job done," he repeated calmly.

"And that's all that matters to you and Hotch, isn't it?" JJ asked bitterly, bile rising in her already tight throat. "That kid wasn't a job, Rossi! She had a name. Ellie. She was a person with feelings and emotions...and a very real beating heart that could have very easily been blown to smithereens because of something I said."

"It wasn't."

"Oh, my God!" she gasped, his nonchalant tone driving a wedge deep within her soul. "You don't get it! I am not a profiler. I never claimed to be one, and I never wanted to be one. But today..."

"Today you had to perfect the fine time honored Socratic method of see one, do one, teach one," Dave shrugged again, his tone deliberately calm. "Being pissed about it won't change it."

"Do I look like a Greek dude in a toga to you?" JJ breathed tightly, livid as she remembered the gut wrenching fear she'd felt talking to that deranged lunatic on the radio, knowing he held an innocent child in his grasp. With every word she had spoken, she had fought rising panic that had threatened to overtake her, overwhelm her, her focus tightly lasered on the man she couldn't see.

"No, you don't. You look like an incredibly irate woman that's seriously debating doing things that would make most of my ex-wives proud," Dave replied slowly, arching his dark brow as he let his gaze linger on her pinched face.

"Well, it's good to know while you might have played deaf and mute today, you aren't blind, too," JJ retorted, her eyes flashing. "I can't believe you went along with this today," JJ said, disgust dripping from every word as she flopped back against the sturdy seat.

"Sue me. I was practicing my own philosophy today," Rossi shrugged carelessly, dropping his head back against the leather seat. "The Rossi methodology," he smiled ever-so-nicely. "It's a much more direct approach."

Don't ask, JJ. Don't ask. But she was unable to resist. "This I've got to hear," she bit out, immediately regretting even opening her mouth.

"It's simple. You had two choices today. Swim or drown. You got the job done and you swam. That's what you have to focus on...the fact that despite a deck stacked entirely against you, you got the job done. A little girl is alive today because you pulled off what should have been an impossible feat."

"What about the fact that the operation today could have gone in the opposite direction, Rossi?" JJ commented softly, giving voice to the one unyielding thought that had captured her every moment since that afternoon. "What would you have thought then?"

"I'd have thought that you did the best job you could, Jen. I would have backed up each one of the decisions you made. Much like I'm backing Hotch up now," he replied with a nod toward their unit chief, his dark head visible above the seat just a few rows ahead. "When we're placed in untenable positions and are asked to make difficult decisions, each of us does the best job we can with the resources we're given."

"Funny you should mention that," JJ ground out, bitterness welling as she felt her stomach drop, knowing full well it wasn't from the shifting of the plane. "I should have had two of the biggest resources in the Bureau at my disposal. Hell, in the time I spent rambling on the radio, one of you could have driven to the City Command Center and taken over...but instead you let me..."

"Do the job," Rossi supplied evenly. "You're right, JJ...was it your job to do? No, it wasn't. But you're missing the fact that you were capable of pulling it off. You got it done."

"And that's supposed to excuse everything?" she asked with a wave of her hand, her voice disillusioned.

"No," Dave replied truthfully, shaking his head. "It doesn't. But, at least you know that when the chips were down and your back was against the wall that you could fight your way out. And you could do it alone."

"That wouldn't have meant much if Ellie had died, Dave," JJ replied softly, her words catching in her tight throat as she fought the unbidden visions threatening to once again overtake her overactive imagination.

"I know," Dave consoled quietly, reaching out to cover her still trembling clasped hands. "And that, I'm sincerely sorry for. But I'm proud of you. Every person on this team is proud of you."

"It doesn't help," JJ replied huskily, turning her head to stare out the window blindly as her fingers clutched desperately at his. "And for the first time today, I wondered..." she trailed off, her tongue suddenly unable to form another word.

Focusing on her averted face, he knew he didn't want her to complete that sentence. The unspoken words were there between them. He knew it and she knew it.

He only hoped that time would change her mind.

_**Finis**_

* * *

_**Author's Note 2 - Also guys, please don't forget that if you'd like to advertise the awards on your own profile pages or stories, there's a short blurb on my (ilovetvalot) and Tonnie's (tonnie2001969) profile page for you to copy and paste if you choose! **_

_**Again, thanks to everyone reading, reviewing, alerting and favoriting this story!**_


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